2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy. In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world". The citation stated, "He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng's legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers." In 2007, Chen won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention. The award, often called the "Asian Nobel Prize", was bestowed for "his irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law". According to AIDS activist Hu Jia, Chen's wife Yuan Weijing attempted to attend the Magsaysay Award ceremony on her husband's behalf, her passport was revoked and her mobile phone was confiscated by Chinese authorities at Beijing Capital International Airport. The National Endowment for Democracy honored Chen with the 2008 Democracy Award. Chen was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award. In 2012, Chen was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First. In explaining the choice, the organization's president Elisa Massimino stated, "Mr. Chen's activism has reignited an international conversation about the need to protect human rights lawyers around the world who face great danger for their courageous work." In 2014 he received the Geneva Summit Courage Award. References External links "How China Flouts Its Laws", op-ed by Chen Guangcheng in The New York Times, 29 May 2012 'Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots': An Interview with Chen Guangcheng', the New York Review of Books, 20 June 2012. United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, 112th Congress, Second Session, 15 May 2012. Chen Guangcheng Freedom Collection interview 1971 births Abortion in China Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China Blind activists Chinese blind people Chinese expatriates in the United States Chinese human rights activists Chinese democracy activists 20th-century Chinese lawyers 21st-century Chinese lawyers Chinese prisoners and detainees Chinese refugees Chinese disability rights activists Living people People from Linyi Weiquan movement Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Witherspoon Institute